Stormy Tuesday

• Didn't mean to but I scared the crap out of some kid when I told him that I am from North Korea. (I'm not really, South Vietnam)
• Tornado weather, just know it when the temperature is about 70 degrees in December.  Had to go an run on the treadmill indoor at the gym yesterday.  Worked on that cadence thing, I'm up to about 170 per minute and it felt actually good.  As I always say: "Close enough for government work."
• Continuing with the Chi Running, 5K cross country race coming up this Saturday.
• These dang teachers gotta learn to lighten up and go with the flow, man!
• Happiness is a warm .....Toe Sock....Injinji socks are the best.  Next on my list is the high compression kind.  They're pricey, about 30 bucks for the pair.

Coffee

Buy Nothing Day

Adbusters Buy Nothing Day http://www.adbusters.org/campaigns/bnd

Funny funny funny

Boycott

I am still boycotting Whole Foods, Starbucks and BP.
Watch this space for Friday's Adbusters' Tips on Buy Nothing Day.

Rules

This is from an older post (September 2009), just to remind myself to not to take it too seriously.  We should be less obedient and more rebellious. Because more harm has been done by being obedient than all the rebellion in the world combined.

My Rules for an Art Teacher:

Love Kids. Love Art. Be Bold. Respect Everyone. Think Deeply. Transcend paper cuts. Open your heart. Smile more. Go the extra mile. Rest. Play. Listen to music. Don't talk too much. Life's too short. Enjoy the moment. Do your best & Hope for the best. Be compassionate. Be Patient. Be Silly. Look. Think. Create. Try again. Re-Invent yourself. Just Start it. Keep it simple. Wing It. Make the hard stuff easy. Make the easy stuff hard. Practice. Keep your sense of humor. Do No Harm. Don't let 'em see you sweat. And most importantly, Know when to stop.

Things I'm thankful for

3 things I am thankful for:

1. My Freedom
2. Mi Familia
3. My Health: physical, mental and spiritual.

Yes, I do eat other food besides Chinese. I'm not even Chinese, Japanese, or Korean.  It's amazing how Americans in the South are still clueless about others from the rest of the world. Just imagine if I was to ask this African-American woman does she eats anything else besides fried chicken and watermelon?   A teacher I work with asked me when will I go "back to visit my country"???  She was shocked when I told her that I'm married to a Caucasian woman and I've been living here for 32 years.

This picture was from The Impossible 5K race last Sunday morning at 1:55 AM.  I finished with a new PR of 23:10.  The clock turned back at 2 AM because it was Daylight Saving Time, so I actually finished the race before I started: at 1:18 AM.  I was really surprised to see over 900 runners/walkers/people out there at 1:30 AM on a cold Saturday night 28 degrees in the middle of a Mall parking lot.  I thought may be, at most, 80 people would show up.

“America put the crazy people who got us into this mess back in charge"   Bill Maher

Adbusters

Adbusters Buy Nothing Day is coming.
http://www.adbusters.org/blogs/adbusters

The Disaster

• Now there's one book I know I won't read or buy.  If there is one thing worse than an idiot, it's a stubborn idiot.  The Decider, Deceiver, Disaster AKA former Prez Dumbya wrote a book.  Still not taking personal responsibility for invading a country that had nothing to do with 9/11.  Thousands of lives later, billions of dollars and 7 years later, the man still blames others for his actions. What a coward!
• "Because I love America..."  The Decider who is never ever wrong about anything.  Ever. "Everybody thought Saddam had Weapons of Mass Destruction...."  Ah, nope, I never did along with millions of other people around the world who didn't believe in the case. 100% Wrong. False. Fail.
• Training?  Who cares about training?  I run for fun and shiggles (sh_t and giggles).  People who overdo everything just zap the fun out of it.  I'm talking about play and exercise, specifically running.

NYC Marathon

   This is an excerpt from RunningisFunny.com :

      "....the Huffington Post decided to get in on the action with “Are New York Marathoners Athletes?”
It’s a competitive world on the Internet, and I don’t begrudge Dave Hollander’s desire for more traffic. Sure, it’s transparent, but I’m happy to oblige.  Hollander published his e-mail exchange with his friend, writer C.J. Sullivan, in which they answer the headline question in the negative. Some excerpts:
Sullivan: “Out of the 37,000 duffers that will pollute the streets of our fair city this Sunday – November 7th – maybe 500 are athletes. The elite runners are something to watch. They are so lean they look almost alien. Them I admire. They are in an actual race. It is the 36,500 other fools that annoy me every year.  “Running is a great way to stay in shape. And running 26 miles is some kind of torturous accomplishment – but they are not athletes. They endure and then squawk about it endlessly as some kind of heroic feat. It smacks of narcissism not sport. Marathons are the last refuge for those that couldn’t cut it in other sports. Any knucklehead in decent shape can train and then run 26 miles in under 4 or 5 hours. It means you are in shape. It does not make you an athlete.”
Hollander: “Beneath the narcissism I detect deep-seated masochism. Kenyans run marathons because they have to. Back home there were no cars, no roads and the nearest school bus or fresh water source was 40 miles away. Their ‘training’ is borne from the necessity to survive. That 36,500 you mentioned, they run to kill personal demons. They beat their bodies swollen and sore to fill an emptiness or quiet a cry.  “Sport, no. Self-flagellation, penitence, lunacy — yes.....”

Sadly, the truth hurts. Sports, for me is about play, and having fun.  Many serious hardcore runners are overly-obsessive addicted egomaniacs.  They overtrain and never get enough to feed their egos. I am an athlete who plays multiple sports including running (just the last 18 months) and I tend to agree with these two writers from Huffington Post. I don't have any desire to train or enter into a Marathon just to prove that I can do it.  I know that I can run 26.2 miles in about 4 hours. I just do not want to.  But when and if I decide to do that, I'd seriously question my sanity.  "Self-flagellation, penitence, lunacy-"  Exactly!

Job Growth (already?)

Congratulations to the Republicans for winning the right to be blamed for pretty much everything.  

Welcome to America the Stupid!

• Americans deserve everything they're getting.
• Who says money can't buy votes?  Except for Whitman in California.
• What is WRONG with you people in Wisconsin?  I was such a fan of the city of Madison, one of my favorite places in the world.
• The Power of Veto. More important now than ever.
• Still waiting for that earth-shattering, huge tsunami...
• Thank you California, Nevada, Colorado, Washington and Oregon.  I always knew the West was best.
• Washington DC is not listening to us. Vote for me and now I've become Washington. We need less government, but I can't wait to get elected so I can be working in government???  Oh, the irony!
• Eff it.  I'm moving to Australia. Or Canada. Maybe Holland, Finland? OK, Denmark, final answer.